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Rare meteorite hits Ontario

Science buffs who find themselves near Parry Sound may be able to score a celestial souvenir after researchers report a blazing meteor captured on video may have fallen to Earth this week along the shore of Georgian Bay.

By Allison JonesThe Canadian Press

Sat., March 8, 2008

Science buffs who find themselves near Parry Sound may be able to score a celestial souvenir after researchers report a blazing meteor captured on video may have fallen to Earth this week along the shore of Georgian Bay.

The University of Western Ontario's physics and astronomy department's network of all-sky cameras – stationed across southern Ontario – picked up images of a large fireball streaking across the sky on Wednesday night.

"It's certainly the largest (meteor) we've seen yet on the network," post-doctoral astronomy student Wayne Edwards said in an interview yesterday from his office in London, Ont.

"We have something like 800 (or) 900 meteors in our database. This is certainly the largest we've seen so far. In that sense, it's very rare."

Based on projections, Edwards said the meteor spotted appears to have landed just offshore in the Parry Sound area.

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"There's the potential that the bay is actually frozen over," he said. "There's a non-negligible chance that there's meteorites probably sitting on top of the ice."

However, he warned amateur sleuths who attempt to go on a hunt to remember to put safety first.

"It is winter and there may be ice, but I'm certainly not advocating people go running out on the ice and endangering themselves," he said.

Meteors, often called shooting stars or falling stars, appear when particles or chunks of metallic or stony matter enter Earth's atmosphere from space.

Air friction heats the meteor so it glows and creates a shining trail of gases and particles. Meteors that reach Earth's surface are called meteorites.

Associate professor Peter Brown, who specializes in the study of meteors and meteorites, said the department has received a number of calls and emails from people who saw the shooting star around 11 p.m.

As well, many people have reported hearing meteors as they descend through the atmosphere, Edwards said, with many likening the noise to thunder followed by a whistling sound.

Brown and Edwards are now trying to find people willing to help search for the meteorite or meteorites.

"If you find something, it's technically yours as long as you didn't pick it up off somebody else's property," Edwards said.

"But we certainly would be interested if somebody does find something if they (would) donate it for a little while to the university so we could do some studies on it."

Edwards said meteorites can be distinguished from ordinary rocks by their satin sheen and higher density, meaning a meteorite of similar size to an Earth rock would be heavier. And most are magnetic.

While they are safe to touch, they deteriorate if they come into excessive contact with natural oils from human hands.

The lab has narrowed down the location where the meteorite fell to an area of about 12 square kilometres.

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